Day: March 19, 2012

Today we talked about Closing Prisons for PPPs, MMP and where we should go with the review, Should the government ban smoking with an interesting point from Steve where Pat Robertson has stated we should make cannabis legal and become de-baptised

Now that wasn’t a statement of his innocence, I have no idea about if he is, or isn’t guilty, but an accused has the right to defend him or herself from accusations. What has happened here is that he is being treated guilty before he has he day in court.

It’s yet to be proven if his site, MegaUpload, has done anything wrong so why has it been taken down, it’s yet to be proven if he has participated in any illegal activity so why are his assets frozen?

Presently Kim Dotcom is innocent of all crimes he is accused of.

Well it seems through a procedural error, Dotcom may have had his chance to now live his life as if he was innocent until proven guilty.

An incorrect court order issued against the founder of Megaupload has been declared “null and void” by a New Zealand judge. The legal bungle could lead to the return of the internet tycoon’s multi-million dollar fortune.

New Zealand police reportedly made a procedural error and applied for the wrong kind of restraining order. As a consequence internet mogul Kim Dotcom, formally known as Kim Schmitz, was not afforded the opportunity to defend himself prior to the seizure of his assets eight weeks ago by the police.

The Judge presiding over the case, Justice Judith Potter said on Friday that the order carried no “legal effect” and the case would have to be re-evaluated, the NZ Herald reports.

Is this the end of end for Kim Dotcom. No. For him there is a long way to go to prove his innocence…which again is not how the justice system should be working. The burden of proof should always be on the prosecution…in this case it seems otherwise.

“He is now receiving medical care and is focused on getting better. The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us, Jason especially, and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday.”

“Jason’s passion and his work have done so much to help so many, and we are devastated to see him dealing with this personal health issue. We will always love and support Jason, and we ask that you give his entire family privacy during this difficult time.”

However, just in case you missed the first video…here’s a close up of it all

You have heard by now the breach of up to 9,000 of ACC’s clients privacy in the last 10 days or so, clients that have sensitive claims, and clients whose details in part were emailed to Bronwyn Pullar by accident.

The details were among more than 9000 ACC claims – some featuring well-known people – that were emailed to a person who should not have received them, in what is being described as one of the worst privacy breaches in New Zealand history.

Since we have heard of that part of the story there has been a claim of blackmail if an ‘unnamed client’ wasn’t guaranteed a benefit for at least two years.

In a report to ACC Minister Judith Collins on Friday, ACC said the unnamed client threatened to send the information to the media unless her benefit payments were guaranteed for two years.

“She made threats that if her demands were not met she would not return the information and she would inform the media of the alleged privacy issue.”

The then ‘unnamed client’ is Bronwyn Pullar.

The latest twist in this story is that ex National Party President, Michelle Boag, is a friend of Ms. Pullars and was at the meeting where the alleged blackmail was said to have occurred. Ms. Boag was acting as an advocate for her friend.

But National Party insider Michelle Boag, who supported Ms Pullar at her initial meeting with ACC over the privacy breach, said it was an ACC staff member who suggested an arrangement could be made, the Herald on Sunday reports.

“In the meeting he said if we agree on this as a way forward, a condition would have to be that you return the information,” she said.

Ms Boag said ACC later wrote to Ms Pullar, offering a single year’s benefit for a head injury Ms Pullar suffered nine years ago in a bike accident.

From this mornings NZ Herald we now find that the breach of privacy for Pullar has potentially been breached over this meeting.

Media and privacy specialist lawyer Stephen Price said last night that, if the breach came from the minister’s office or ACC, there would be good grounds for a complaint to be made to the privacy commissioner.

So we’re in this weird murky area now where is Ms. Pullar has tried to blackmail ACC with the ‘support’ of Michelle Boag, then she may still be able to get some money out of them due to her privacy being breached from a leaked email between Boag and ACC and that leak seems to have come via the ministers office Judith Collins.